The archived blog of the Project On Government Oversight (POGO).

Feb 15, 2012

Budget Breakdown: Protecting Whistleblowers

By MICHAEL SMALLBERG

On Monday, we did a rolling analysis of President Obama's Fiscal Year (FY) 2013 budget request, focusing mainly on our proposed spending cuts for wasteful and unnecessary defense and nuclear weapons-related programs.

Now we turn to the other side of the equation: investing in the watchdogs that save taxpayers money (directly and indirectly) by uncovering waste, fraud, and abuse in the federal government and identifying opportunities for potential savings.

Analysis: Time and time again, federal employees have saved taxpayer dollars by blowing the whistle on wasteful spending practices within their departments and agencies. Federal whistleblowers also protect our interests by exposing threats to public health and safety.

But who protects these federal employees when they face retaliation for blowing the whistle? That’s where the Office of Special Counsel (OSC) steps in. OSC investigates allegations of whistleblower reprisal, seeks corrective action for whistleblowers who have suffered retaliation, and recommends disciplinary action against the retaliators.

Although the OSC reached an all-time low under former Special Counsel Scott Bloch, there have been encouraging signs of the agency’s revitalization under the current Special Counsel, Carolyn Lerner. In recent months, Lerner’s OSC has:

Filed an amicus brief in support of former federal air marshal Robert Maclean, who disclosed a Transportation Security Administration (TSA) plan to reduce air marshal coverage of international and long-distance commercial flights at a time when the government was on heightened alert for a possible hijacking plot.

Four cases alone in just the past few years restored well over $11 million to the government. This amount, while substantial, grossly understates the financial benefit OSC brings to the government.

The real measure of OSC’s financial contribution is prophylactic: By providing a safe channel for whistleblower disclosures, OSC regularly reins in waste, fraud, abuse, illegality, and threats to public health and safety that pose the very real risk of catastrophic harm to the public, and huge remedial and liability costs for the government.